Page 21 of Cold Foot Revenge (Wreck’s Mountains #7)

The soft click of the door sounded so loud in the quiet of the room.

Dylan had just uttered the words to his brother Garret. “I found your Maker.”

She’d always wished for a sibling. She’d always wished for the closeness that could come with growing up with someone who completely understood how she’d been built.

Her shifter hearing was something else. She was a coyote.

She could hear a pin drop across the street if she focused.

At first, the oversensitive hearing had been overwhelming, and she hadn’t been able to focus on anything.

It was just chaos to her senses, and no control, but now?

She’d learned how to tune most things out.

But here in this small motel room, she could hear the frustration in his brother’s voice on the other line.

She’d been able to hear the hesitation in Dylan’s.

She’d heard the somberness when he’d uttered those words, “I found your Maker.”

She’d been through her own saga figuring out what had happened to her, and how her coyote had come to be, but she’d figured it all out in the first year.

Garret was years into this and had been forced to move forward with no answers.

And while she understood Dylan’s need to hunt down what had really happened, she felt sad for Garret because right now, his world would be turning on its axis.

She pressed her palm on the door and did something she hadn’t done since she was a kid, and her grandma had taken her to Sunday school, so that perhaps she wouldn’t turn out like her drug addict mother.

She closed her eyes and prayed. Please let Dylan find the right way to tell him.

Let him settle his brother’s heart. Let him open a window for Garret to really move on.

Let Dylan find the perfect words so he can move on too.

Let them both be okay after the dust settles.

Here in the silence of the bathroom, she could still hear both sides of the conversation.

Dylan repeated, “I found your Maker.”

“I told you I didn’t want to know.”

“I have to know. I had to know who did this to you. I had to know for me.”

Silence filled the room, and she turned and pressed her back against the door as she slid down and sat on the cold tile. She didn’t know Garret, but a strange little part of her wished she could give him a hug and tell him it was going to be okay.

“What’s he like?” Garret asked.

She could hear Dylan swallow audibly. “He’s probably a guy in a lab. Or hell, maybe he was one of the experiments they were doing in some place like Cold Foot Prison. He’s just a number on a vial. One-zero-one-zero. He won’t even know you exist. He is the Maker of many.”

“I don’t…I don’t understand,” Garret said, and she could hear the heartache and confusion in his voice. “He didn’t leave me on purpose?”

Dylan murmured a curse word, and she could hear the bed squeak under his weight.

She imagined him running his hand down his beard, like he did when he was deep in thought.

“There is a Crew here, and they wanted me in that Crew. I don’t know why.

I don’t think I’ll ever be able to find that part out, but they injected you with a Turn dose instead of me that night.

Gar, I wish it had happened to me instead. I wish they hadn’t fucked it up.”

“I was a mistake?”

Roxy drew her knees up to her chest and hugged them tightly. God, she knew this feeling.

“Never a mistake. They just gave the wrong brother the dose. They did evil, and you paid for it.”

“So did you,” Garret said, and his voice cracked with emotion. “We both paid for what they did. Who was it?”

“The Alpha is named Grave. He gave the order. His brother gave the dose to you. His name is Leech.”

“Chh,” Garret scoffed. The silence was back. “You called Wreck to you, didn’t you?”

“I’ll head back tomorrow.”

“That’s not what I asked. You called the Phoenix. Why, Dylan?”

The room felt so heavy right now, and she had to force herself to inhale deeply, and exhale deeply.

“Revenge.”

“I don’t want you to do this alone. I’m coming to you.”

“I’m not alone. I have Roxy. She’s been helping me find all the answers.”

“Why?”

“Because she’s good. I’ll have Wreck with me tomorrow.”

“Is Tawk coming too?”

“Can I ask you something?” Dylan said so softly, she had to focus harder to hear him.

“Anything.”

“If I asked you, would you Turn me?”

“Never.” The answer was immediate.

“Even knowing what you know now? Even settled with Raynah? Even happy?”

“I would never do this to anyone. You get to live a human life for the both of us. Why would I destroy that? Why are you asking about this?”

“I don’t know.”

“Bullshit. Why are you asking?”

“It would be nice to fit into your life. You changed and I stayed the same.”

“You aren’t the same. You’ve grown.”

“That’s not what I mean.”

“Well, it’s going to have to be good enough, Dylan. I’ll never Turn you. I swear it on Breah. Don’t ask me. I don’t want to talk about it again.”

“Okay, but why?”

“Because I remember how it was the first two years! I remember fighting the extra voice in my head. I remember exactly what it felt like when my bear would try to kill you and I was this little voice inside of his head, begging him to let you live. It’s not like what you think.”

“Okay, okay. I won’t mention it again. I was just wondering.”

“I’m coming to you.”

“No, you aren’t. I’m heading to Darby tomorrow. I won’t even be here when you arrive. Let’s go out when I get back. Have a few beers and catch up. I’ll tell you everything.”

“That’s a shaky truth,” Garret pointed out.

“You’re chasing a war I don’t want. You’re chasing ghosts who don’t matter.

I’m a test-tube shifter from a bear who is nothing but a number.

I’m a mistake. Okay. Okay. I’m not even that surprised.

I’m good. Just pull Wreck off whatever you have planned.

Something is wrong, Dylan, I can feel it.

My bear feels it. Just pull off the hunt. ”

“Aw, Gar, you know me better than that. You don’t pull a Hoffman off a hunt. It’ll eat me alive. Love you, man.”

Roxy knew he’d hung up. She also knew he would probably need a few minutes to process whatever had happened in that loaded conversation, so she turned on the shower and tested the water with her fingers, waiting for it to warm up.

Dylan had asked his brother about being Turned.

What she’d told him about the dose she’d tried to steal for him was heavy on his mind.

She startled hard when there was a soft knock at the door.

“Come in,” she invited him.

Oh, the rawness in Dylan’s bright blue eyes as he stood there in the doorway.

A dozen emotions washed over his face, and she couldn’t read them fast enough.

All she knew was her heart hurt for what he and his brother had gone through.

The more she learned, the more she understood how strong the Hoffman brothers were.

He didn’t say a word, just closed the distance between them.

She was ready for what he would do because she’d seen it coming.

It was there in the hunger in his eyes. Roxy reached for him as he pulled her roughly to him and kissed her.

His hands were to her hair in an instant, gripping her, holding her impossibly close.

He released her with a soft smack and dragged nipping kisses down her throat. Roxy threw her head back and closed her eyes at the harsh bathroom light.

“Do you need your head to go quiet?” she whispered.

Dylan straightened up and kissed her lips again and then moved to her ear. Softly, he said, “It already is.”

Her smile was instant. What power she felt, wielding the ability to quiet a good man’s mind.

She tugged the hem of his oversized shirt upward and freed herself from the fabric.

He backed off enough to drag a fiery gaze down her body, and back up.

The wicked smile that tugged at the corners of his lips said he liked what he saw.

His hands went to her hips and he squeezed.

They drifted up her ribs to her breasts, and he turned her in his arms and hugged her from behind.

She held gently to the shower curtain to keep her balance as he massaged her breast in one hand and gripped her waist with the other.

She rolled her hips back against him because she had to. Her body needed to be closer to him. To tease him. To beg him.

He ground against her, and she huffed a little sigh at how good it felt to be this close to him.

Dylan reached forward and shoved the shower curtain to the side, then shoved his jeans down and kicked out of them smoothly.

His shirt hit the ground next and then he guided her over the shallow ledge of the shower and tested the water before he eased her under the jets of warm water, her back to the shower head.

The next kiss consumed her. He thrust his tongue into her mouth immediately, and the gentleness was done.

Now there was a desperation to his touch that she adored.

She had yearned to be wanted just…like…this.

She’d wanted a man to look past her occupation, and to need her for her.

To need her as the woman she was, not the fantasy.

The water felt good splashing against her back as his hands massaged every inch of her.

His cock was so hard, and stood at full mast, pressed between them, and she gripped it, needing to feel the slide of her hand up and down on his shaft.

The groan in his throat was the sexiest sound she’d ever heard. She wanted him…no…she needed him inside of her. Nothing would feel right in her world until he was moving within her.

She eased his cock downward toward her sex, asking, and he understood. Dylan drove her back against the shower wall and slid into her. He was big, but the stretch felt so good, she uttered his name on a shaking breath.

“Fuuck,” he growled out, easing back by inches and thrusting into her again. She was already so wet, so ready.